Takashi Hara

Takashi Hara (9 February 1856-4 November 1921) was Prime Minister of Japan from 29 September 1918 to 4 November 1921, succeeding Masatake Terauchi and preceding Kosai Uchida. Hara, a member of the conservative Seiyukai Party, was both Japan's first Christian and commoner prime minister, and he was assassinated in 1921.

Biography
Takashi Hara was born in Morioka, Nanbu Domain, Japan in 1856, and he became the protege of Inoue Kaoru. He was to win a position for himself independent of the oligarchs who had ruled Japan since the Meiji Restoration, establishing the power of the party in politics. His early career included time spent as a journalist and as a senior official in the consular service in China and ambassador to Korea. As a leading member of the Seiyukai Party, he entered the Diet in 1900 and served in several Cabinets as Minister of Communications and head of the powerful Home Ministry. In 1914, he succeeded Saionji Kinmochi as party president and four years later he became the first commoner to hold the premiership. He was an expert at building up the party machine, largely through the funnelling of patronage provided by big business to the grass roots. A combination of strong electoral performances and the brilliant skills Hara displayed as a political schemer allowed Japan's political parties to win power from the bureaucracy and the old political establishment. Hara's policies, as well as his emphasis on domestic economic well-being, brought him into conflict with the entrenched interests in the bureaucracy. He was stabbed to death by a right-wing fanatic at Tokyo Station in 1921.